You know things have gotten bad when prosecutors start prosecuting teens — some on felony charges that could result in significant jail time — because of bullying. Yes, bullying.
Most of us have experienced bullying at one point in our lives, or know someone who has been bullied. Of course for most, the bullying didn’t result in lifelong scars. Part of that is because the extremes of bullying were not really known 20 or 30 years ago. You couldn’t bully someone 24/7 through Facebook, Twitter, email and forums devoted entirely to making other people’s lives miserable (yes, such online communities exist).
So nowadays sometimes bullying is taken to an extreme. Not by one or two teens or kids, but by a whole gang of them.
In central Massachusetts, it led Phoebe Prince — a 15-year-old Irish immigrant — to hang herself. And now 9 teens have been indicted on charges related to her humiliation and threats. Threats that ultimately led to her death.